Shipping Vocabulary Quiz
12 multiple-choice questions on shipping vocabulary: cargo, ports, containers, freight and logistics terms. B1–B2 level.
Shipping Vocabulary — FAQ
Cargo is the goods or merchandise carried by a ship, aircraft, lorry or train from one place to another. The word covers everything from loose bulk materials such as grain or coal to boxed and palletised products and goods packed inside containers. In shipping you will also meet the related word 'freight', which can mean both the cargo itself and the charge for carrying it, while 'consignment' refers to a particular batch of goods sent to one customer.
A shipping container is a large standardised metal box used to carry goods by sea, road or rail. Because its dimensions are standardised — most commonly the 20-foot and 40-foot sizes measured in TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) — it can be stacked on ships, lifted by cranes and moved straight onto lorries or railway wagons without unpacking. This system, called containerisation, made global trade far faster, cheaper and more secure than handling loose cargo by hand.
A harbour is a sheltered stretch of water, natural or man-made, where ships can lie safely at anchor away from rough seas. A port is a wider commercial facility built around a harbour, with docks, quays, cranes, warehouses and customs offices for loading and unloading cargo and passengers. In short, every port needs safe water like a harbour, but a port adds the infrastructure and business of handling ships and their goods.
Freight has two closely related meanings in shipping. It can mean the goods being transported — much like cargo — and it can also mean the charge paid for carrying them, as in 'the freight on this consignment is high'. You will meet it in many compounds, such as 'air freight', 'sea freight' and 'freight forwarder', the company that arranges and organises the movement of goods on behalf of importers and exporters.
Customs is the government department that controls goods entering and leaving a country. Officers check that paperwork is correct, inspect cargo when necessary, enforce restrictions on prohibited items, and collect any duties and taxes due on imports. Goods must be 'cleared through customs' before they can be released, and delays at this stage are a common cause of hold-ups in international shipping, which is why accurate documentation matters so much.
A bill of lading is a legal document issued by the carrier to the shipper that acts as a receipt for the goods, a contract of carriage and, in some forms, a document of title proving ownership. A manifest is a separate list of all the cargo carried on a particular ship or flight, used by the crew and by customs to see exactly what is on board. The two work together: the manifest summarises everything aboard, while each bill of lading covers a single consignment.
Logistics is the planning and management of the whole flow of goods, from raw materials through to delivery to the final customer. It includes transport by sea, air, road and rail, as well as warehousing, stock control, packing and the documentation that goes with each shipment. Good logistics aims to get the right goods to the right place at the right time and at the lowest sensible cost, which is why the field is central to modern supply chains.
To import means to bring goods into a country from abroad, while to export means to send goods out of a country to be sold overseas. From one nation's point of view, the same shipment of cars might be an export for the country that builds them and an import for the country that buys them. The words are also used as nouns — 'imports' and 'exports' — and the difference between the value of the two is a country's trade balance.
ETA stands for 'estimated time of arrival', the date and time a shipment or vessel is expected to reach its destination. It is widely used in shipping and logistics to help ports, warehouses and customers plan ahead. You will often see it paired with 'ETD', the estimated time of departure. Both are estimates, so they can change with weather, port congestion or delays at customs, and they are updated as a voyage progresses.
Shipping by sea carries goods in containers aboard cargo vessels; it is far cheaper for large or heavy loads but slower, often taking several weeks across long routes. Air freight moves goods by aircraft; it is much faster, usually a matter of days or hours, but considerably more expensive and limited in the weight and volume it can carry economically. Exporters choose between them by weighing cost against urgency for each consignment.